Improvement in floor-cloths



UNITED. STATES PATENT QFFICE.

THOMAS H. DUNHAM, on BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN FLOOR-CLOTHS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. [173,778, dated February 22, 1876 application filed J une 4, 1875.

To all whom it may cancer n:

Be it known that I, THOMAS H. DUNHAM, of the city of Boston, in the county of Suffolkand State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Floor- Gloths; and I do hereby declare that the fol lowing is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same,reference being bad to the accompanying drawing, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

My invention consists in fabrics made for carpets or floor-cloths saturated with a tar compound, consisting of tallow, tar, rosin, potash, sulphur, clay, alum, ocher, chalk, whiting, lime, baryta, camphor, sulphate of ammonium, or any other salt of an alkali, mineral, or fireproof equivalent, making fabrics with bright colors, which may be printed as desired, and having aromatic; fire,and water proof quali ties.

In the common oil-cloth carpet now in use 7 oil is used, which rots the fiber, and detracts from the wear and durability of the goods. The filling of the fiber requires time and care, and is attended with much delay and expense, while also it is liable to crack and break when used.

My invention is intended to obviate the many objections to, and disadvantages of, such carpeting or floor-cloth, and to make goods which will wear much longer, and lessen greatly the expense of making. 7

I will now state more fully the manner of carrying out, or manufacturing, according to my invention.

I take burlaps or any coarse-woven fabric and immerse it in a bath of tar compound,

heated to 212 Fahrenheit, of which I add to every barrel of tar, three pounds of potash orcarbonate of soda, five to ten pounds of tallow or oil, five pounds of rosin, five pounds madder or turmeric, tenpounds of sulphur, twenty to thirty pounds of ocher or clay, twenty pounds of whiting, five pounds of alum, and three pounds of camphor, adding alsobaryta, lime, chalk, sulphate of ammonia, or other soluble salt of an alkali, or alkaline earth, mineral earth, or -'its equivalent fireproof material. When the goods are well saturated I press them out even and smooth, and dry them over heated cylinders, after which, I run them through a bath of paints or colors, and then dry and press through calender-rolls, after which I print them in any design required.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

A bright-colored floor-cloth, consisting of a coarse fabric tilled with a tar compound, composed mainly of tar, tallow, ocher, and whiting, and being smooth and even for taking painted colors, and having alum, potash, camphor, and sulphur added to it, substantially as herein described, and for the purposes set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own invention, I hereby affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

THOMAS H. DUNHAM.

Witnesses:

L. TOWLE, E. M. HELMroK. 

